First mover developed markets continue to lead, and now the Rest of the World demands additional capacity as network operators scale-up with the demand.

Mobile network operators must make their network investment choices to meet this never-before experienced growth -- and have a good grasp of the growing demand in the foreseeable future.

"Operators closely manage their CapEx and OpEx with a sharp eye on the top line," says Joe Hoffman, practice director at ABI Research.

But while network functions virtualization (NFV) gains momentum, current business needs require continued investment in the mobile packet core, likely utilizing the legacy technologies.

According to ABI's assessment, continued advances in semiconductor technology -- as they're manifested with commercial IT scale -- will regularly deliver a 20 to 30 percent cost performance improvement.

Software defined networking (SDN) combined with optimization from NFV capabilities brings new WebScale benefits and other much needed advantages to the telecom service provider community.

Furthermore, the rapid transition to open source software -- plus guidance via the OSS vendor consulting and technical services -- will enable this next transition to occur much sooner than originally anticipated.

In its research, ABI found that even with the increased mobile internet traffic growth, traditional packet core spending will taper just as WebScale utilization takes hold and starts to deliver results.

Following the proof of concept tests and beta deployments, the widespread adoption of open source hardware and software will quickly gain momentum -- that's the current forecast.